Sharpless 1

Hannah Sharpless Professor Gretchen Pratt English 1102 Due 4/14/13 How Does Technology Affect the Way We Value Handwriting? So much information, so little time. Research papers can be very intimidating, especially when you know little to nothing about what youre researching. This research paper took lots of thought and time, and realizing that research is an ongoing conversation really helped. While researching on this topic I hoped to learn more about how people practice handwriting in their daily lives, and how the value of handwriting has changed amongst generations due to technology. The death of handwriting? Thank God. In this day and age young people seldom write in their spare time or even in the academic setting. One article by Claire Suddath suggested that the decline in handwriting is due to the fact that no one is forcing us to. Overtime weve nearly eliminated cursive from our culture and our handwriting has become increasingly illegible. Suddath, the author of Mourning the Death of Handwriting made a statement that children of the technologically dependent generation dont mind that there is seemingly no value to handwriting. This is just fine, she suggests, because of the continued decline in use.

Touching those words meant so much. My granddaddy holds significance in my heart like no other. His soul and spirit filled my life with joy, and losing him in July of 2012 crushed my world and changed me forever. I went back to his home soon after his death and began looking through his room at old photos, Bibles, and such that he left behind. Perhaps the most significant of my findings was a journal of his handwritten personal thoughts, notes, and sermons. I felt a whirlwind of emotions while having this tangible piece of his character in my hands. I was holding a piece of him, something I never wanted to let go. He had such a sweet and tender presence about him and I loved how knowledgeable he was on his work of being a reverend. Because he suffered from dementia, a lot of his brain power was lost and it was hard to speak to him on a comprehensive level. Reading these letters reminded me exactly how much he knew and how pure his heart really was. The fact that he wrote in cursive showed his delicacy and scholarliness. Ever since I was a child, I always associated cursive with refinement, wisdom, and beauty because it was something so classic to the American culture. My granddaddy was truly refined, wise, and beautiful, so for him to write in cursive was completely appropriate to his nature. One piece in particular from his journal that especially resonated in me was a sermon he wrote after the passing of a member of his church, titled The Meaning of Death.

A piece from the sermon:

There is no deaththe stars go downto rise upon another shoreand bright in heavens jeweled crownthey shine for evermore. Alfred Sharpless These words were delivered to me so powerfully because my granddaddy presented them in such a poetic, metaphoric, and symbolic way. The cursive font contributed to the ease of flow in this passage. Although its been about nine months since his passing, I continue to cope with his death every single day. The words in this sermon helped me to understand and deal with my granddaddys death in a way I never could have imagined. This particular quote reminds me that he may no longer be here on Earth, but his soul shines everlasting in heaven. These words came directly from him, so it was amazing to hear exactly how he would expect me to mourn his death. I may never be able to touch or hold my granddaddy ever again but this journal offers me a piece of serenity every time I pick it up.

As I was going through old home videos of my family recently, I stumbled upon one I filmed of my granddaddy years back. I immediately began tearing up because I felt almost as if I was sitting right there with him once again. Soon the tears turned into laughs, smiles, and memories of how he used to be. It offered me a great deal of escape because for a moment I was warped into the past, sitting across the table from my granddaddy as he laughed, joked, and asked ridiculous questions. Over the next few days I thought a lot about the difference in the emotions I felt while holding my granddaddys letters versus watching the home video of him. It made me come to value the art of handwriting quite a bit more because of the peace I felt while touching the paper and the sense of his character that was revealed by simply observing the font of his handwriting. With watching the home video, you would never be able to see how intelligent he was before his disease captured his mind. He also had a physically tougher build that isnt translated through his serene handwriting. Thinking about my emotional connection to the video made me value my availability to access technology such as a video camera during those times because I was offered something more than just my memory and imagination; it gave me an exact account of what happened and what he was like at the time the footage was shot. I can play the sound of his voice in my head, but to hear it aloud through the recorded video allows for no faint account, but rather a pure touch. Emotional connectionwhat will it become? An article by Christine Rosen titled Electronic Intimacy focused on whether or not the way we communicate with one another alters our emotional experience of connection. This article especially resonated with me considering my emotional experiences with my granddaddy. Rosen describes the process we go through when pen hits paper; we think about how we feel and take time to reflect. On the opposite spectrum, Rosen explains that Email, texting, and social

media use encourage a fast paced and instantaneous fluctuation of our feelings. The anxiety we feel from trying to figure out the meaning of our online connections is described by Rosen as an emotional terrain. With letter writing, we experience patience and private emotions. I endured great peace while reading those letters from my granddaddy, and the idea of these private emotions greatly appeal to me. I had to ask myself; will our emotional connectivity eventually become something reliant on technology? Without the use of cell phones or computers, exactly how strong would these emotional connections be? I believe this is a question society must answer, and in order to work on being less dependent on technology for connectivity we must look towards greater physical interactions. But what about the good side? Rosen displayed a mainly negative view towards our societys technological use, but in an article titled The Introduction Of Keyboarding To Children With Autism Spectrum Disorders With Handwriting Difficulties: A Help Or A Hindrance?" we see how students dependence on technology turned out to be a very positive thing. This article discusses a study conducted to explore the effects in using keyboarding as an alternative to handwriting for students with Autism Spectrum Disorders who have difficulties writing by hand. The study used twenty-two students with ASD whom were given portable word processors to use in the classroom to overcome these difficulties with handwriting. The study measured students motivation, speed, ability, and preferences of keyboard use versus handwriting. Teacher, student, and parent questionnaires indicated the students motivation levels were generally much higher for the portable word processors over handwriting. Overall, keyboarding was effective in helping students to overcome several obstacles experienced while handwriting, with legibility being most significant. (The Introduction Of Keyboarding)

Handwriting and technology across three generations I chose to use people from different age groups when conducting my interviews in order to see what differences lie between how we use handwriting daily, and how we value it across generations. What I expected to see as the generations descended was a steady decline in how much we write throughout our day and depreciation in the value of it. While some of my assumptions were correct, I must say I was rather surprised at a few of the answers I received. I interviewed my grandmother Alma Sharpless and asked her why she feels handwriting is so important. Her main argument was that its (handwriting) workable. You might not always have the technological tools there but you can always write, unless you have some sort of disablement. My grandmother uses handwriting frequently throughout her day so I thought Id ask if she sent or received handwritten letters very often. I was actually surprised to hear that she didnt receive nor send letters outside of cards for special occasions. She figures this is so because people always just pick up the telephone and call. (Alma interview) I asked the same question on letter writing to my boyfriends mother, Jennifer Jordan, who is in her fifties. She hates technology, using only emails for work, and contacting her children. I expected for her to be quite fond of letter writing because of her lack of use of technology, but she too rarely writes or receives letters. Her reasoning for not writing letters wasnt due to technology, but rather that she doesnt really like to keep in touch with people. Also noting, I don't like to have things in writing that other people (beyond the recipient) can read. (Jennifer interview) This gave me a very interesting perspective because I always looked at letter writing as being private, whereas emails or text messages could be shared with people much easier. Jennifer added a comment in her interview that was extremely similar to my own words. She said I am not a sentimental person, but I do find that it makes me happy to pick up a

recipe written by my mother in her own hand (cursive.) This again tells the significance of having a tangible piece of something handwritten that technology simply cannot reach. My last interview with my boyfriend, Ian McGibney, also brought out some surprising conclusions. I expected him to have a very narrow opinion on the importance of handwriting, as our generation is stereotyped to, but he ended up offering me something I hadnt put much thought into. When asked about why he believes handwriting is important, Ian answered its very important for impressions-to help you to stand apart from other people. Sloppy handwriting connects with negative traits like being unorganized. The lack of legibility in our handwriting has become a very strong problem amongst technologically dependent generations. Because we practice handwriting less, we become less good at it, and put less effort into the technicalities. This, Ian suggests, can greatly impact how we are viewed. To learn or not to learn? The question of whether cursive should be taught in schools has become a great debate. Has cursive become a lost art due to increasing technological literacy? According to Michael Hairston, president of the Fairfax Education Association, cursive writing is a traditional skill that has been replaced with technology. (Lawrence) Fewer children are learning to write in cursive, and more are being taught keyboarding literacy. My grandmother taught middle school in the seventies, where kids were taught to write in cursive during grade school, and were instructed to only use cursive handwriting from then on. (Alma interview) When I told her we only learned to use cursive in third grade and never again after, my grandmother was shocked considering she had no clue cursive had even been eliminated from most public schools curriculums. In fact, since 2010, 45 states have adopted the

Common Core Standards (CCS) which doesnt require the teaching of cursive in school at all. (Lawrence) When asking my grandmother about the benefits of writing in cursive, she credited most to speed and ease of reading. Throughout my life I have resented not learning cursive. I felt I couldnt develop a unique signature, it was nearly impossible for me to write the cursive section for the SAT, and most hurtful, I couldnt understand a lot of my granddaddys writing because they were written in cursive. I do believe cursive is a true art form, and to take it away from students curriculums is to take away something extremely unique. Because it took me so much time to try and decipher every word my granddaddy wrote in his sermon, I felt like I wasnt able to capture all of the true emotion he put into them. I wondered if I had missed a keyword simply because I couldnt read cursive. To bear with this was tremendously heartbreaking. I hope for our future that we will all learn to step away from technology and spend time interacting pen and paper, capturing the emotions unobtainable through anything else. When doing this, we will hopefully become less reliant on emotional connections through technology, and see that all the connectivity we need is reachable through physical, tangible, interaction.

Works Cited Ashburner, Jill, Jenny Ziviani, and Ana Pennington. "The Introduction Of Keyboarding To Children With Autism Spectrum Disorders With Handwriting Difficulties: A Help Or A Hindrance?." Australasian Journal Of Special Education 36.1 (2012): 32-61. ERIC. Web. 12 Mar. 2013. Jordan, Jennifer. Personal interview. 13 Apr. 2013. Lawrence, Julia. "Education News." Education News Cursive Teaching Declines in Schools Across America Comments. n.p., 9 Apr. 2013. Web. 13 Apr. 2013. McGibney, Ian. Personal interview. 13 Apr. 2013. Rosen, Christine. "Electronic Intimacy." Wilson Quarterly 36.2 (2012): 48. Points of View Reference Center. Web. 12 Mar. 2013. Sharpless, Alfred. The Meaning of Death. First Baptist Church. Chinquapin, NC. n.d. Sermon. Sharpless, Alma. Personal interview. 23 Mar. 2013. Suddath, Claire. "Mourning the Death of Handwriting." Time Magazine. (2009): n. page. Web.

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